Stitches
by Siobhan Daley
Summary: Aya and Ana Stein were raised in a laboratory by their father, Dr. Franken Stein. When the girls are sixteen, their father decides that it's time to get the two out into the world, and enrolls them in the DWMA. What could happen to these twins who have never met anyone outside their home before?


_Deep in the woods, behind the graveyard and down a dark path, there was a laboratory where a crazy man lived. His experiments had such strange forms, but some were quite happy, or so the girls heard, oblivious and naive to what this man did._

Late at night, while the bloody moon shone, two tiny twin girls wandered alone through a cemetery, hooks dangling from the trees clanking against each other in the wind. As they approached the furthest side from the main road, the path that led to the girls' destination came into sight from amongst the tombstones.

"Come on, Aya! I can see the trail!" the twin with slightly darker hair squealed excitedly and ran ahead.

The older, sturdier of the twins plodded behind, carrying both of their suitcases that held everything they owned; some clothes, a little bit of money, and a few books. "Calm down, Ana," She said, blowing her warm silvery-gray hair out of her eyes moodily, "You're gonna give me a headache. Seriously, what's the big deal?"

The more energetic of the two stared at her gloomy sister with innocent green eyes. "Aren't you excited though, Aya! we're finally gonna get to meet him!"

"What are two little girls doing alone in a graveyard at this time of night?" a male voice said from behind Aya's back. Ana screeched and hid behind her sister, who just turned calmly to face the man. He was much taller than the twins, but that was pretty normal, seeing as they were only six years old. The braver twin didn't feel threatened, for she could see that this man held no malicious intent towards them, just curiosity, mild confusion, and slight concern. He was twisting the giant bolt that ran through his skull as if it helped him think. Aya noticed the sutures that ran diagonally down his face, a good hint that Aya and Ana had found the person they had come to see.

"Are you Dr. Franken Stein, the Mad Meister?" Aya asked without hesitation.

"That's right. I've never heard a little kid call me 'The Mad Meister' before," D.r Stein said with the same nonchalant tone as before, "So, who are you two?"

"My name is Aya, and this..." Aya pulled her sister out from behind her and pointed at her, "Is my twin sister, Ana. We came here looking for you."

Dr. Stein blinked a few times and tilted his head curiously, "Oh? What do you need?"

Aya fished a wrinkled envelope from her pocket and handed it to him. "Our mom gave this to me before she died. She said to give it to you, so here you go."

"Sorry to hear that..." Dr. Stein mumbled as he read the letter from the girls' mother. At first, his brow furrowed in concentration, then his eyes went wide behind his glasses. "WHAT THE-?! Why wasn't I notified of this?!"

"Is something wrong, Dr. Stein?" Aya asked innocently.

His gaze flicked between Ana and Aya, twisting the bolt in his head furiously. "Neither of you have read this, have you?" Both girls shook their heads. Dr. Stein sighed, "Well, come with me. You two will be living with me from now on, seeing as I'm your only relative left, apparently."

"I don't think we could be related to somebody so creepy," Ana whispered to Aya, but Dr. Stein still heard her.

He just chuckled, "Sure you are. Look at yourselves. Both of you look just like me! I'm your father!"

Ana and Aya began living with Dr. Stein, who, both according to their mother's letter and very single test that was run, was their father. Ana was rather apprehensive at first, but soon warmed up to her dad. Aya, on the other hand, took him almost immediately. As the girls got older, Aya developed to be more like her introverted old man than her bubbly sister did.

Shortly after the twins' eighth birthday, the girls found themselves to both be weapons. Unlike other weapons or even most sibling pairs, they could resonate as well as transform, so they often alternated training as a weapon or meister. As soon as their talents were discovered, their father taught his dear daughters everything he could. The problem was, there was only one important lesson that Dr. Stein could never teach... Social skills.

**Ten Years**** Later**

"Aya! Get up!" Ana yelled at her twin sister, now sixteen years old, "We need to get to school!"

The grumpy teen pulled the dark blankets up over her head and pressed her pillow into her ears. "I'm not going anywhere, Ana. It's too goddamn early!"

The bubbly girl checked the clock between their beds, "It's seven-thirty, Aya. It's not _that_ early." Ana ripped away her sister's blankets and literally dragged her into the kitchen. "Now sit and eat your breakfast. We're leaving in fifteen minutes."

Aya gloomily munched on a piece of toast and stared her twin down. "Would you mind reminding me why we're enrolling at the DWMA this late in the game? We could turn me into a Death Scythe on our own, without the academy, so why are we even bothering? We've already got 67 Kishin souls, and we're definitely ahead academically, so... Why?"

"We've been over this, Aya," Ana groaned, "Papa is enrolling us so that we can meet some kids our age, seeing as there aren't exactly many people living in the graveyard."

"What about-"

"Sid doesn't count, because he's still technically dead."

"Eh, true." Aya conceded. The short conversation died away and was replaced by the uncomfortable sound of toast crunching between Aya's teeth. After a few minutes, it was driving the Aya nuts. "I'm gonna go get dressed," She said quickly as she pushed away from the table.

Ana looked down at her sister's plate, still with nearly half of the food untouched. "But what about your breakfast?" she called after Aya.

"Do what you want with it. I don't want to eat right now." Without another word, Aya pulled the dresser open and rummaged through her clothes, trying to decide what to wear for her very first day attending school. Eventually, she yanked out a her favorite sleeveless shirt, the one made of red, vermilion, orange, and gold fabric all stitched together with the same suture pattern as nearly everything else in the house. Once she threw the shirt on her bed, Aya found a pair of dark blue jeans that she decided to wear as well. Lazily, Aya pulled off her warm, soft pajamas and replaced them with the outfit she had chosen. A pair of plain white socks made their way onto her feet and she shuffled out towards the front door. Aya slipped on the more scuffed-up pair of dark brown boots by the door, yelling to her twin as she ran out, "I'm leaving, Ana! If you don't hurry up, you'll be the late one for once!"

"Huh?! Wait for me!" Ana, dressed in an azure strapless zip-up over an lighter blue tank top and tan shorts, struggled to get her brown boots, identical to Aya's, over her loose purple socks. Once they were secured, she ran to catch up with her twin on the path to the graveyard.

Both girls were quite athletic, as meisters and weapons need to be, so running to the DWMA wasn't difficult. Though slightly winded, the two were laughing when they arrived at their new school.

"It looks like I win again!" Aya proclaimed her victory in the race they had started halfway through Death City.

"You _always_ win!" Ana complained, "Can't you let me win every now and again?"

"Nope!" Aya looked up at the huge building, decorated with giant skulls, candles and spikes. She whistled in astonishment, "Damn! That's a pretty big building, isn't it? The design is pretty cool, but I think I like the lab better."

"I think it's creepy here."

"Admiring the architecture, are you?" The twins whipped around at the sound of an unknown boy's voice. A teenager around their age had come up the stairway behind them with a girl on either side of him. "It's a fantastic building, really. It is perfectly symmetrical!" Ana giggled as if she found him funny, but Aya just raised an eyebrow quizzically. The strange boy with the equally strange passion for symmetry seemed to notice. "What? Is there something wrong?"

Aya replied, "Um, well, not really. We've just never met anyone like... Well, yeah. Anyone. Who are you, anyway?"

He smacked his forehead. "I can't believe I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Death the Kid, and these are my weapons, Liz and Patti Thompson. What are your names?"

Ana pointed at herself then her sister and did her best to introduce themselves, "Um... I'm Ana. This is my twin, Aya."

Aya asked bluntly, "Isn't 'Death the Kid' a bit of a mouthful?"

The shorter Thompson sister, Patti, laughed like a child, "That's why we just call him 'Kid'!"

The other one, Liz, said, "I don't think I've seen you two around before. Are you new to town?"

"Just the school, really. We live on the outskirts of the city, by the graveyard."

"That sounds depressing," Liz shuddered, "Kind of scary too."

Both twins shrugged in reply simultaneously, "It's not that weird. There aren't any ghosts or anything, and the only zombie there is Sid."

"Ghosts and zombies aside," Kid interrupted, "You two should probably head to class. You do know where to go, right?"

"No," Aya said bluntly.

Ana sighed in exasperation, "Sometimes I can't believe we're related. Did you even read the schedule Papa left us?"

"Why would I? I just have to follow you and I'll be fine."

"You're hopeless." Ana pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and scanned for their class. "We're in class Crescent Moon."

"Oh, that helps!" Aya said sarcastically, "Let's just get going, shall we?"

"Liz and Patti and I are actually in that class too. We could walk you there, if you'd like," Kid offered politely. The green-eyed twins glanced at each other and agreed. Kid continually pointed things out, such as the cafeteria, the dispensary, etc. on the way to class. Ana seemed to be listening intently, but Aya had her earbuds in playing music loud enough to drown out Kid's voice. She wasn't trying to be rude and she didn't find him particularly annoying, she just didn't like listening to people talk. That's just how Aya was. She started walking with her eyes closed, but quickly snapped them back open when her sister grabbed her arm, saving her from running into a wall. Aya read Ana's lips, watching her tell Kid that the older twin often ran into things when she zoned out then giggling in a way that Aya didn't have to hear to be annoyed by. Ana's girly behavior was probably the only thing about her twin that she couldn't stand.

Suddenly, Aya's music stopped when Ana yanked her earbuds out. "What?!"

"Kid is trying to talk to you!"

"Why are _you_ getting mad?!"

"Because Papa said ignoring people is rude!"

"I'm not ignoring anyone, I just can't hear with my music on!" The twins kept bickering for a good five minutes or so. Kid and Liz kept trying to get them to stop (Patti was just laughing away), but they were tuning everyone out. The Stein sisters only quit their silly little argument when yet another person got involved.

"Aya, Ana, why are you two not in class yet?" The silver-haired sisters froze and turned around, seeing their father directly behind them sitting in his rolling chair.

"We were lost!" Ana lied quickly, "We were just asking Kid here where our classroom was!" The younger twin laughed nervously, a clear indication that she was lying and she knew it was crap.

Dr. Stein sighed, "If you're going to lie, at least make it a good one, Ana. Oh well. Aya, what's your story?"

Aya pointed at her sister and said emotionlessly, "She pulled out my earbuds."

Their father just shook his head sadly at his children's pettiness. "Come on. I'm not having you two be late on your first day." Dr. Stein rolled forward between the girls and grabbed the backs of their shirts or, in Aya's case, jacket, pulling them backward and dragging them behind him. Death the Kid and the Thompsons walked behind the dysfunctional family, not yet realizing that the twins were relatives of the insane teacher.

Liz asked uncomfortably, "So... Do you two already know Professor Stein?"

"Yep," The three said in unison.

"Oh, cool!" Patti said loudly, "How long have you known him?"

Dr. Stein answered instead, "Ana and Aya came to live with me when they were six years old, after their mother died."

"She asked _us_, Dad! Not you!" Aya snapped at her father.

Kid, Liz, and Patti gaped in surprize, "_DAD?!_"

"Yeah. He's the one who enrolled us. We need to learn how to interact with other people or something. Personally, I couldn't care much less."

Kid muttered, "I think it's pretty clear which parent you take after..."

The chair slowly came to a stop outside the classroom and Dr. Stein let go of his daughters. "Stand up, you two. I'll be introducing you both to the rest of your classmates, so try to get some of that dust off of you, alright?"

"Fine, fine, whatever you say, Dad." Aya took her jacket off and brushed off the dust she had picked up from the floor then brushed off her sister.

"I can do it myself, Aya!" Ana protested.

"I know you can," Aya replied, "But you're always doing everything for me. Just let me do the little things, like this."

When the twins were satisfactorily brushed off, their father and teacher pushed open the door to the classroom and tried to roll in, but ended up falling instead. Kid, Liz, and Patti pushed past him and quickly scrambled to their seats. "Good morning, everyone," Dr. Stein greeted as he righted himself, "As I mentioned yesterday, there are two new students joining us today. Come on in, girls." Ana and Aya did as instructed and stood in front of their new classmates. The darker-haired twin smiled and waved while the older one fidgeted uncomfortably and looked away. "Introduce yourselves, please."

"My name is Ana!" The bubbly one said brightly, "It's nice to meet all of you!"

The darker twin mumbled, "I'm Aya... Hi..."

"This is the first time either of them has attended school, so treat them well: If you don't, you might be our next dissection project."

The Stein twins took the seats furthest away from the other students, by Aya's will, of course. Before she even had a chance to hear what the day's lecture was about, Aya had her earbuds back in and playing "Witch Hunt" loudly, but not enough for Ana, who was right next to her, to hear. However, it wasn't loud enough to drown out the thought, _'Something tells me... Soo, this place will be very interesting...'_

_Author's Note: Thank you very much for reading the pilot chapter of 'Stitches'! If it wouldn't be too much trouble, a review giving recommendations, corrections, or support would be greatly appreciated! Please enjoy the chapters that will follow! _


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